Friday, February 15, 2013

Valentine's Day

Theme: Valentine’s Day

Honey Pot is 2 years and 9 months old

Little M&M is 11 months old

Books

We borrowed a few books about Valentine’s Day and love from the local library, as well as reading a few from our own collection. We left these out on the ottoman throughout the week to read again and again. Here is what we read:

I Love You, Stinky Face by Lisa Mccourt

Pigs in Love by Teddy Slater

If You’ll Be My Valentine by Cynthia Rylant

Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney

I Love You Through and Through by Bernadette Rossetti Shustak

Candy Heart Sorting and Graphing

These free printables came from Teaching Tiny Tots. Honey Pot just loves candy hearts, and so she was particularly excited to do this activity. Here is the invitation:

First I asked her to sort them by color. She had no trouble with this!

Then we began graphing. I had to show her what I meant about stacking them up. But once she understood this idea, she did quite well.

After they were all stacked up, we made some observations about her graph. Which color has the most candy hearts? Which two rows have the same amount? Then she counted each row up!

Finally, I allowed her to choose three candy hearts to eat. The rest we would put aside for another time. She was thrilled. And I’m pretty sure all three went in her mouth at the same time…

Crayon Resist Watercolor Painting

“I was thinking we can do a craft.” Honey Pot says this a lot. And I hadn’t prepared anything by this point so I quickly threw something together when she asked. We have done this activity once or twice before, but not with the watercolors. Honey Pot had fun! First I used a white wax crayon to write a secret message on her paper. Then I showed her how to dip her brush in the water and then into her color of choice.

The first one was a bit all over the place, so the second time I told her to only paint inside the hearts. Much neater results. Fun little craft!

Crystal Hearts

I found this on Pinterest via Club Chica Circle. Oh my goodness, I cannot tell you how much I loved this one! First, I shaped some chenille stems into hearts, and attached them with string to a ruler. (The original I saw attaches them to a Popsicle stick; however, they were to be placing their hearts in glass jars. I don’t have any and needed to use a great big bowl. So I needed something longer. A ruler did the trick!)

Then I boiled some water and poured it into a Pyrex bowl. Very carefully, Honey Pot poured in two and a half cups of Borax. (If using glass jars, you only need a third of a cup each.)

Then she stirred it up. Again, very carefully!

And I placed the ruler over the bowl. We let it sit overnight.

In the morning our hearts (and the bowl) were covered in wonderful crystals!

To clean the bowl, we just rinsed with water and scraped it off very easily with a knife. Then we hung our hearts in the window. Just beautiful!

Valentine Person

I had seen so many versions of these on Pinterest. Just had to make one with Honey Pot! I cut out all the pieces in advance, then asked her to assemble him. She glued on the white circles for eyes.

And carefully placed the black circles onto them for pupils.

Then she added a button nose. She tried to help fold the arms and legs, but in the end it was a little complex for her. So I did them, and placed them down onto the table, not necessarily where they were to be glued.

“Is this the tongue?” she asked. LOL.

She put a dab of glue on the back where the arms and legs go, and pushed the pieces down hard!

Next, some glitter! I did the glue this time, but she helped pour glitter all around.

Ta da! Isn’t he cute?

Rice Sensory Bin

We love sensory bins. And we had used this rice a couple times before. It needed color. First, we added a few drops each of food coloring and white vinegar. Honey Pot helped me shake the bags up.